BobHarris.com - U.S. about to start a trade war with Canada

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Who Hates Whom:
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U.S. about to start a trade war with Canada

Tag it now -

Monday, 15 November 2004

This isn't in the U.S. media anywhere I can find -- but it's all over the news in Canada:

Trade war looming, warns B.C. minister

VANCOUVER - B.C. Forests Minister Mike de Jong says the latest U.S. move in the softwood lumber fight could lead to an all-out trade war.

Montana Senator Max Baucus is about to introduce a bill that would allow billions of dollars in lumber duties from Canadian companies to be given to U.S. forest companies.

De Jong says if Baucus's bill passes Canada will have no choice but to retaliate. "You can't steal $4 billion from a country and not expect that there would be repercussions."

He says he and his federal counterpart are now talking about what kind of retaliation Canada might take if the bill passes. And he says one of the options includes stopping energy exports to the U.S.

(The heads-up courtesy our infomeister Colin, resident of that fair province and coffee brewer extraordinaire.)

OK, now we're even pissing off Canadians. Do you realize how hard it is to piss off a Canadian? They're like our best friends on the planet. And now we go and try to grab $3.6 billion from them. Nice.

These people are making do without hockey, people. The NHL is on strike. Which means there are 32 million people north of us armed with big heavy sticks, terrific beer, and in need of something to do in their sporting hours. Oh, this is gonna work out swell.

Update: reader Mike points out correctly that the NHL players are locked out, not on strike. And if anybody should get the basic facts of a labor thing right, it oughta be this blog. My bad.